Holguín
Cuba · Americas
About Holguín
Holguín is a municipality-city in Cuba. It is the fourth largest city in Cuba, after Havana, Santiago de Cuba, and Camagüey.
Before Columbus, the Taino people settled in huts made from royal palm in the Holguin area later urbanized by the Spanish; their artifacts are shown at the local Holguin La Periquera museum. The settlement was founded in 1523 on land donated by Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar to Captain Francisco García Holguín, a Spanish military officer. Holguin added his maternal surname to the name of the town, giving it the name San Isidoro de Holguín. Prior to 1976, Holguín was located in the province of Oriente. Before Pope Francis's visit to the United States, in September 2015, he visited Cuba, and one of his stops was at the Diocese of Holguín to, among other things, commemorate the location where Christopher Columbus landed.
The municipality is divided into repartos or barrios. The old municipality was more extense, and in 1940 included: Aguarás, Aguas Claras, Alcalá, Arroyo Blanco del Sur, Báguanos, Cabezuelas, Cacocum, Calderón, Camazán, Cauto del Cristo, Corralillo, Cruces de Purnio, Damián, Floro Pérez...
Holguín travel guide
Getting there
By plane 1 Aeropuerto Internacional Frank País (HOG IATA) (located 13 km southwest of the city). The small-size airport has 2 terminals: An International Terminal and a small Domestic Terminal. There are direct international flights from/to Miami, Manchester, Cancun, London, Frankfurt, Montréal and Toronto, as well as domestic flights from/to Havana and Moa. The international ones are mostly full of package holiday tourists - you can sometimes get a bargain if you are flexible with dates as the tour companies don't sell all their package holidays.
By train 2 Holguín railway station. (updated Apr 2020)
See
1 St. Isidore Cathedral (Catedral de San Isidoro), 122 Libertad. Completed in 1820. (updated Apr 2020) 2 Parque Monumento Nacional Bariay. 3 Cayo Saetia Island. Several all-inclusive resorts are located on 4 beach areasː
Playa Pesquero Playa Yuraguanal (Turquesa) Playa Esmeralda Playa Guardalavaca In addition, there areː
Gibara Cayo Bariay
Do
Holguín has some of the richest scenery in Cuba. High mountains, fertile plains and fine-sand beaches alternate in the landscape of this province. It was in this area where Christopher Colombus landed (Bariay). Beaches in Holguín are among the most picturesque in the Caribbean. They are surrounded by vegetation, whose intense green color creates a contrast with the white golden tone of the sand and the blue color of the sea. There is a wide variety of attractions in Holguín. The capital city and Gibara are worth visiting, as well as Banes, Bahía de Naranjo, Cayo Saetía and Pinares de Mayarí. Holguín is located in the most septentrional part of Eastern Cuba, between Las Tunas and Guantanamo. To the south it has Granma and Santiago de Cuba.
Eat
1720 Restaurant, Colombus Restaurant (Cayo Bariay), Los Flamboyanes.
Drink & nightlife
Los Flamboyanes (Guardalavaca), La Roca (Guardalavaca).
Sleep
Playa Pesquero Hotel, Sol Rio de Lunas y Mares Resort, Rio de Oro, El Pernik
Overview adapted from Wikipedia, travel guide fromWikivoyage (CC BY-SA)。Photography via Wikimedia Commons.